Sailing Photo Album

There's nothing worse than being the captive audience of someone's home videos or photo album, so I'm
assuming you're here because you're interested. If you want to view the photos, please click on the title.
I've made every effort to keep these gifs small--between 20 and 40K, so that means about 20-40 seconds to
load. Depending on your browser--or phases of the moon or something else I can't control--you may get
goofy color on these gifs. I've found that if I click them off and click again on the link, they load up fine.
Sometimes it takes a couple of tries, but eventually they get their acts together. If you have trouble you
might want to try this, too.

John and my dad sailing Proper Motion with the Golden Gate Bridge
in the background. No, I did not take this shot! It was done by a pro (can't you tell?). This was before
John gussied up the boat with the windvane and radar for his single-handed TransPac, but it'll give you an
idea of some of the wild rides to be had on the Bay.

We dare greatly, including making sails, converting normal sails to roller-furling sails, and some of
our own canvas-covering work. John has a heavy-duty sewing machine, and he
sews his own. This shot is of him getting to know the machine -- note that this is the early stages
while he's still smiling!

British Columbia (Canada) is a gorgeous place. Evergreens grow right down
to the water's edge. It made us sick, though, to see how the timber industry is raping the land. How sad
the Canadians didn't learn the unhappy lesson we Americans are now understanding. Maybe there's time
yet!

This is Sansum Narrows, located between Salt Spring Island and Vancouver
Island in Canada's Gulf Islands. Pretty tight quarters and a very swift current. I was glad we weren't
trying to go against it and that we didn't meet anybody going the other way!

In July, 1994, John single-handed from San Francisco to Hawaii. Here he is at the start of the race, heading down Raccoon Strait for the Golden Gate. His jaunty
attitude is because he was actually heading toward the Gate when this picture was taken. Shortly
thereafter -- because the race committee failed to check the tide tables? -- the tide turned, and he was pushed
back to Richmond! Another fellow was pushed back further than that and decided to tie up at the dock for
the night and start again the next morning. John finished last on elapsed time but holds the record for
NorSeas! His trip lasted 17 days. We were in contact via ham radio most days --I'm not a ham, but some
friends at the Oakland Yacht Club were, and I called
them every morning at 8 a.m., and they held the telephone to their ham receiver.